The Zwenkauer See () is the largest

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the

Neuseenland Neuseenland is an area south of Leipzig, Germany, where old open-cast mines are being converted into a lake district. Neuseenland includes shares in the district of Leipzig, in the district of Nordsachsen and in the city of Leipzig. The lake netw ...

situated south of

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. It is on the site of a former

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

open cast mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

. Zwenkauer See was opened for tourist use on 9 May 2015.

Location and shape

Both Leipzig and

Zwenkau Zwenkau () is a town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. Situated between the White Elster and Pleiße rivers, it nestles in the Leipzig Bay and includes parts of the conservation area ''Elsteraue'' and ''Central Germany's Street o ...

have parts of the lake area. The shortest distance to Lake Cospuden to the north is about . The

Bundesautobahn 38 is an autobahn in Germany. It connects the A 7 near Göttingen with Leipzig. In ''Die Südharzreise'', David Woodard discusses Bundesautobahn 38 in comparison to Route 11 in Paraguay and U.S. Route 66.Woodard, D., "Autobahn 38, Ruta XI, ...

runs between the two lakes. To the north of this is the Belantis amusement park. The lake runs east of Zwenkau for about in a roughly north-south direction with a width of around , then turns west after a northeast bulge, widening to , and opens up to form an approximate triangle with an edge length of . Since 2011, at the southern shore of the lake, at ''Kap Zwenkau'', a new urban borough was built. Terraced mixed-use and residential areas are lined up around the new sailing and water sports harbor. The circular path around the lake for walking and

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

is roughly long.

History

In 1921, the

Böhlen Böhlen () is a town in Saxony, Germany, south of Leipzig. Its main features are a small airport and a power plant. It is located in the newly built Neuseenland, the lakes created in former open-pit mining areas. History The first documente ...

open-cast mine was opened and lignite mining began. Year after year, the miners moved closer to Zwenkau with their heavy equipment. In 1965, the Böhlen opencast mine officially became the Zwenkau opencast mine. After 580 million tons of lignite had been extracted, the last coal train left the Zwenkau open-cast mine in 1999, and remediation could begin. The former open-cast mine has been flooded since 2007 and reached its provisional final water level in 2015.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Cite web , title=Raus an den Zwenkauer See , url=https://www.zwenkauer-see.com/ , access-date=2025-05-04 , website=zwenkauer-see.com , language=de , editor=Sächsisches Seebad Zwenkau GmbH & Co. KG Lakes of Saxony Mining in Saxony Leipzig (district) LZwenkauer See